


The Fight and the Fall

by Solstarin



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 16:39:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17646431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solstarin/pseuds/Solstarin
Summary: Sometimes all a friendship needs is a couple affectionate punches to get off the ground!





	The Fight and the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> bad, cheesy, clickbaity title. i have no regrets
> 
> shoutout to Men In Tights for the reference ;)

Eret wasn’t even on Y/N’s radar. She had bigger priorities than this new human member of their team, like figuring out how they were going to integrate another dragon with her incredibly sensitive scaredy-cat of a dragon. Muds was small for a Stormcutter, only slightly more than half the size of her cousin, Cloudjumper, and somewhat dim in comparison, as well. The sharp, innate ability of Stormcutters to distinguish between friend and foe was duller in this poor creature, and it took some doing to earn her trust. Because of her size (or lack thereof), she was meticulous about knowing who was in her surroundings. She knew where every other dragon in a formation was, and attacked just about anything out of place. It took several weeks, quick reflexes, and dozens of treats to teach her a new strategy, and that was just with the original five, familiar dragons. The momentary addition of Heather back on the Edge hadn’t gone well, and Y/N and Muds were grounded most of her stay. Just _looking_ at Eret’s loud, brash Rumblehorn gave her a headache. **  
**

Muds, of course, didn’t like him, either.  She had a particularly difficult time understanding the shift between “Strange-Hostile-Person-Whom-We’ve-Never-Met” to “Eret-Now-A-Friend-Of-Dragons”. Stoick had visited infrequently with Skullcrusher before, so they were essentially starting from square one. Stormfly, bless her, had done her best to show the younger dragon that the new additions to their team were not threats, but poor Muds just hadn’t grasped the concept yet. Y/N kept Muds and herself at a distance from them, only exchanging short words with Eret over supper to remain civil. He seemed to keep his distance, as well, perhaps not fond of being the odd one out as the new guy, not to mention Ruffnut would hardly leave him alone. Y/N knew too well what the twins’ attention meant, in any capacity, and she couldn’t blame Eret for being scarce.

Hiccup, apparently, had had more than enough of both of their reclusive habits and had called them to the arena at the crack of dawn. He stood now with his arms crossed over his chest, one hand gripping a leather-bound notebook and a stick of charcoal, considering both of them across the sizeable distance they’d put between each other. 

“Closer.” 

A glance over at Eret revealed to Y/N he was just as confused as she was. “What?”

“We’re here to acclimatize Muds to Skullcrusher, and, by extent, the two of you. That’s not going to happen if you’re standing an ocean apart. A step closer won’t kill you.” 

Y/N frowned, but took a step forward. Muds followed close at her back, her head swiveling and the end of her tail flicking as she tried to make sense of the two across the stone from her. 

Eret followed, Skullcrusher rumbled up behind him, and Muds chittered. 

“I have an idea.” Hiccup leveled both of them with his I-mean-business look. “It should work if both of you cooperate.” 

Y/N shrugged. ”Yeah.” Eret also nodded his agreement.

“Great. It’s pretty simple. Eret, Muds is comfortable with Y/N, and the smell of Y/N. I want you to wear her cloak, and Y/N can re-introduce you slowly. Muds may be a little easier to convince that you’re friendly if you smell friendly.” 

Surprisingly, it worked. By working gradually, with plenty of gentle assurances and praise on Y/N’s part, Eret could stroke both of Muds’ sides from nose to tail, and Skullcrusher could make a full, slow circle around her at a moderate pace, even without Y/N’s scent draped over them.

“Great,” their leader conceded after about an hour of exercises. “We’ll pick back up tomorrow morning. Y/N, I’d recommend giving Muds a good break.”

Eret handed Y/N her cloak back, and their hands brushed momentarily. She threw it over her shoulders, catching a hint of his scent still clinging to the material. For some reason, it made her strangely nervous. She decided she was not a fan.

“Wonderful. Great lesson. Bye, Hiccup, bye, Emmet.”

Eret didn’t have enough time to process what she’d said and correct her before she was swinging herself into her saddle and taking to the air.

Hiccup sighed and scribbled something in his notebook, leaving them in momentary silence, save for the skittering of dragon claws on the stone as Toothless tracked circles around a disinterested Skullcrusher.

“Sort of quiet, isn’t she?” Eret commented, watching her and Muds leave the arena behind. Hiccup tried unsuccessfully to stifle a chortling laugh, and the newest rider turned to him with a frown.

“What?”

“Y/N is anything but quiet. We thought the same thing, at first, but don’t let it fool you. She’s got a tongue sharp enough to cut off that fluffy braid of yours.” 

“Really?” He paused before asking further, “Why doesn’t she speak to me?”

Hiccup shrugged. “Sometimes I’m not sure if her or her dragon is more wary of strangers. I guess neither of them-- _ahem_ \-- quite like you.” 

Eret’s brow creased further as he looked back up to see Muds’ tail flick around a sea stack and out of sight. 

~

With the dragon bonding underway, the others tried to help the two humans in the equation, in their own way. The twins tried their “T’n’T” (Tried-and-True Tightrope) Method, which thankfully did _not_ involve any explosives. Despite having worked on Dagur and Mala previously, it wasn’t the best approach for Eret and Y/N. The newcomer tumbled off before any semblance of a match could begin, while Y/N, long-accustomed to wave-riding on dragons, balanced atop the swinging tightrope cooly, examining her nails as Eret spat dirt out of his mouth. 

Fighlegs tried meditating. It seemed to work-- until he realized the reason they hadn’t been making sarcastic jabs at each other was because they had both fallen asleep. 

Astrid just shrugged her shoulders. “You’ll get over each other.” 

Snotlout was the last to assist, and had led them both to an open patch of beach on the far side of the island.

“Hiccup is wrong,” he announced as Hookfang found a comfortable spot to nap. “He’s great with dragons, but people are _my_ speciality. I know what you two need.” 

Y/N and Eret both stared, silently, waiting for him to continue. He shifted his weight and sighed. “Listen. In the Jorgenson household, we handle things the old fashioned way. The correct way. The _only_ way. No dragons, no ‘talking it out’ or whatever soggy garbage.”

He gestured to behind Y/N with a wave of his arm. “Astrid, if you would.” Y/N turned to see the blonde atop Stormfly, who was coaxing Muds down the beach. Her dragon was, albeit a little cautiously, following at a steady pace. She could play with the Nadder for hours if she was allowed. Y/N frowned and quirked a brow but let it happen. 

“ _Never_ expect another favor like this, Snotlout,” Astrid called over her shoulder, jabbing a finger at him.

“Yeah, yeah, _screw you, Snotlout_ , I get it, just take the Stormcutter somewhere else. Far away.” 

As Muds got further away down the beach, the viking produced a chicken wing from the bag slung across his shoulders.

“You too, big guy.” He waved it before Skullcrusher’s nose until it caught his attention, then slung the chicken and the bag as far as he could, into the trees. The Rumblehorn chased it, rumbling happily, and leaving the humans alone. 

Snotlout picked up a large stick from the ground and began tracing a large circle in the sand around them. “Sometimes,” he explained, “You’ve just gotta throw a couple punches. Really brings people together.” 

“What, exactly,” Eret questioned, peering over Y/N’s shoulder as Snotlout completed his ring, “are you suggesting?” 

Snotlout bonked the stick on the top of Eret’s head. “Fight.”

Y/N snorted, sparing a glance to Eret, who seemed just as apprehensive. “Sorry?” 

“Sparring,” Snotlout assured. “Nothing serious. Just to get to know one another.” 

“What do I win?” Y/N asked, crossing her arms across her chest. Eret scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Uh, the thrill of victory? Eternal bragging rights? My praise?” Snotlout tossed his stick aside and waved a hand dismissively. “Now get to it. That chicken isn’t going to last forever, and I will not be responsible for that dragon when he comes back.” 

When Y/N looked over to Eret, she found his gaze already on her, one brow raised, as if he were asking her agreement to continue. She heaved a short breath. 

“Why not? Not like you could do much damage anyway, Egret.”

The comment was sharp, but her voice wasn’t, and a smile tugged at her mouth as she planted her feet shoulder-width apart and balled her fists.

“You’ll see what Eret, son of Eret, is capable of. I’ve taken on whole crews single-handedly!” Eret struck first, feigning to the left before striking at her with his right fist. She missed it with plenty of room to spare. She kept up her defense, knocking half-hearted blows away with ease. 

“Oh, please!” she exclaimed. “Are you throwing fists, or flowers?” 

Eret’s stance widened and he pulled his fists closer before lunging forward with more force. Y/N had to compensate heavily on her right foot to get out of the way in time, and attempted a feint to the left to get her balance back. It wasn’t very convincing, and he almost got her to trip up before she got her feet right under her, still trying to find an opening in his defense.

  
He laughed sharply as she dodged another meaty fist. “All bark, but no bite, are you?” 

Y/N chuckled breathlessly, and dropped close to the ground and changed her tactics. She swiped a leg out, trying to catch his heel. He jumped over it, but that was what she wanted; she balanced herself on her palms and swung herself around, slamming her other leg into his ankles just as they touched the ground. 

He lost his footing and hit the sand with a heavy thud, but recovered quickly, and rolled to avoid her pinning him down. He used his momentum to swing an arm at her head as he got back to his feet. She ducked beneath it and managed a sharp jab to his ribs before he twisted out of her reach. 

Eret’s hair was disheveled from his momentary grounding, and his face was flush with effort. Y/N was struck, for a moment, by the glimmer in his eyes and the flash of his teeth. The tattoo on his chin distorted slightly as he frowned with concentration, When did his face get to be that handsome? She was so lost in this moment of admiration that she didn’t catch his palm coming to box at her ear. The sharp blow shook her head out of its bizarre little mood and back into the fight, but as she caught his calf mid-kick she found her breath trembling like the muscle beneath her fingertips.

If Eret noticed her mind was elsewhere, he didn’t ease up on her, and pressed his offense forward, pushing her to the edge of the ring. She was back on strict defense, deflecting blows and dancing out of the way of his rapid punches. 

He tried a kick at her at the same time she made a move to duck under his range of fire and strike at his abdomen. Her right leg hooked with his left, and her shoulder collided with his hip, sending them both to the sand. They ended up in a tangled heap, winded both from the fight and the fall. 

Eret groaned, and Y/N felt it more than she heard it. He struggled to brace himself up, but only got to his elbows before wincing. His hiss of breath sounded sharply in her ear, and she was sure he could feel the same pain that was blooming in her shoulders. She shifted the knee that had buried in his side, and he lifted his heavy chest off of hers. One of his hands had trapped her bicep above her head, and a thigh was snug between hers. 

She cracked her eyes open through the ringing in her head, and met his. She sucked in a breath, of either shock or something else she didn’t know-- the scent of leather and the sea filled her head, and the space between them superheated in an instant. Was it just her imagination, or did she see the same expression of hesitant wonderment in his face? She couldn’t be sure that he had leaned forward just a hair, but she was sure that her heart rate took another spike. 

The world seemed to grind to a halt around them, until Snotlout kicked Eret’s thigh. “Round’s over! I didn’t need you two to get _that_ close.” 

Eret scrambled off of her, and offered a hand to help her up. Y/N accepted it, hoping he couldn’t tell her hands were getting clammy. She very pointedly studied the sand around them as Snotlout sighed.

“Eret landed top of the pile, so he wins, but really, we _all_ win, don’t we?” He slung his arms around both of their shoulders, yanking them down to the same height. “Would you consider you to be friends, now?  Wouldn’t you say that sparring match was _just_ what you needed?” 

Y/N wriggled away, but her sneer was breaking into a smile. “Not to your credit, Snotlout.” 

“Nonsense. Another rift mended by the expertise of one Snotlout Jorgenson!” He released Eret but ground a fist into his bicep with a grin. “My dad will be so excited to hear that it worked!” He climbed into his dragon’s saddle and jerked his horns. “Let’s go do the family name proud, Hookfang! Have fun being friends! And don’t worry, you can thank me later!” 

The pair of troublemakers took off, leaving Eret and Y/N in relative peace. Distantly, Skullcrusher was rumbling through the brush and crunching on bones, but they still had a good minute or so before he returned. Muds was likely still scampering about with Stormfly somewhere out of earshot.

Y/N cleared her throat, trying to regain the confidence that had until just recently come so easy to her. “Well, Amit. Since you won, I guess it’s only fair that you pick your prize.”

He mulled it over for a moment, hoping the blush that flared up on his face was still hidden under the pretense of exertion. Half of those thoughts did not have _any right_ to be in his head at that moment. He schooled his voice into steadiness before speaking. “You... could help me with the training arena? I’m on cleaning duty this week.”

Y/N shrugged. “Sure. Maybe I could get some dusting done with that little brush back here.” She ruffled the spiky end of his hair, and he laughed. 

“Bad idea. Dust makes me sneeze.” 

“We’ll figure something out, Achoo, son of A-sneeze. We may need a lot of water. You could use a bath, anyway.” 

She was joking, but he was suddenly trying to remember the last time he’d washed. “Really?” 

Her laugh lifted his chest and the corners of his lips. Her eyes sparkled as her gaze sidled over his face. “No, Eric. You’re fine.” 

“It’s Eret.”

“I know, Aaron.” 

Eret sighed, but didn’t complain. For her favor, he could take a couple new names. And maybe... one day she’d be saying his name _right._


End file.
